Douglas Snow

Doulgas Snow Overview

The Leonardo was once home to the Salt Lake City Public Library. Artist Douglas Snow was commissioned to paint a mural for the library in 1964. The towering mural is 27x14ft and has been on display for decades and remains the centerpiece of the current museum atrium. This piece of library square history will spark your creativity as you discover the intersections of art, science and tech throughout our exhibits.

To be in this country. To live in it much of your life; to understand its geology, its history, to see it in all its seasons, and still, ultimately, to know nothing that can summarize it. All you can do is have faith in the strength of the experience, paint, ‘not knowing,’ but with conviction in the significance of those feelings.

-Douglas Snow

The Leonardo da Vinci Connection

Leonardo da Vinci’s most recognizable mural is The Last Supper painted for the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. It has undergone multiple restorations and has survived centuries of natural deterioration as well as war. Today, very little of the original mural remains. Of Da Vinci’s remaining murals The Battle of Anghiari had actually been lost for a long time. The fresco was painted using a new technique Da Vinci had researched but in practice found it to be a terrible choice as it began to deteriorate before he could finish the mural. The results forced him to abandon project. The fresco was covered by a new mural during renovations in the mid-16th century and it was not until 2007 that an investigation was approved to find evidence of the remains of The Battle of Anghiari.